How did church-going people do Sunday dinner? When would there be time for preparation?

Prepping before church, big roast goes into the oven before leaving for church, extended family brings peripheral stuff, rolls, wine sometimes salads.

A neighbor had some relatives that would go to midnight Mass and then stay home to finish up preparations.
( Italian Family tradition).

We always had a Sunday dinner, but we went to church at 9:30 in the morning, so plenty of time in the day to get dinner ready. But this was just our family and based on the way my mom was raised—wasn’t a part of a larger community practice.

Sunday dinner was quite large when I was growing up. All 4 of my Dad’s brothers lived within walking distance and all went to the same church, then came to our house for dinner.

Mom. made much of the meal on Saturday, roast chickens, mashed potatoes, and bread, then heated it up while making the salad on Sunday. The aunts made up the table while the men played with the kids, or worked in the yard.

“Sunday Dinner” isn’t right when you get home from church unless you have hired help at home to cook for you. (That’s how it was done in the South).

But a roast beef or a leg of lamb doesn’t take much more than an hour and a half to cook, plenty of time for people to socialize before dinner. And most of the meal prep is either done while the roast is cooking or was done the day before and put in the icebox.

In my family we ate at about six o’clock on Sundays: after whatever game was on, but before 60 Minutes.

Servants.

Slaves.

There was plenty of time if you were Catholic. Mass only goes for about 1½ hours if the congregation is large. 40 minutes if it’s really small.

My nother-in-law sent the children off to church while (whilst) she stayed home and cooked.

Same as @Yarnlady, desserts and cook Saturday, maybe roast, crockpot, fried chicken. The whole point is no work on Sunday.

They started the roast before they left for church and prepared the vegetables when they returned. Or they served a combination of cold foods and heat-and-eat foods that were prepared the day before. Foods were kept cold in a spring or well house until they were needed.

The whole thing sounds exhausting to me, especially if you have to dress up for church. Sounds like a day of work rather than rest.

A friend I had in school, they would usually go to brunch after church, and then when they returned home her mom would cook for dinner time, and more of the extended family would come over. Sometimes they would grill outside and the husband did the grilling. Because of the brunch, they only cooked and cleaned for the dinner meal that day.

Not sure if you are interested in the Jewish tradition, but I think it’s worth commenting. Usually, Jews who are observant of the Sabbath prepare all the food before the sabbath, because you aren’t supposed to work during the sabbath, and cooking is work. The wife/mommy is supposed to get to rest too. Probably, some Christian do the same and cook the day before. It’s A little different though, because the sabbath starts at night through to the next sundown.

If it were me, I’d probably make things like Lasagna that I can prepare ahead, or make a roast that I don’t need to pay much attention to. Better yet, prepare things that have very little clean up. Ugh, who wants to spend hours cleaning on Sunday night.
Maybe buy a baked chicken at the store and a salad.

My Grandmother cooked a feast on Saturday an we’d go to Sunday school and then church that let out around noon or maybe a little later depending how how full of the Holy Ghost the preacher was that day. We’d get home about 12:30 or so and the ladies would take out the food while the children got out of their Sunday go to church clothes and became children again. The men gathered around the TV awaiting the first Sunday football game. Reheating the food didn’t usually take very long and we were eating by 1:00 or maybe 1:30. Only the rich went out to eat at a restaurant. Friends who wanted to visit for the day would just show up without any notice and Grams would pull out an extra plate and offer them a meal. It was not unusual to have 20 people there for dinner (now called lunch).

Now when the church community wold come together for a meal directly after church, everybody would bring 1–3 food items and place them on the community table. Nobody planned what would be brought and everybody brought their favorite items so they knew they wouldn’t go hungry. Some brought meats and some brought several veggies. Then everybody grabbed their plate and the Sunday dinner began. You grabbed a paper plate and plastic utensils and the worked your way around the table picking what you liked best out of the feast that was laid out before you. Depending on how much meat was there, it regulated how much meat that you would take. There were plenty of vegetables to fill you up and people weren’t so rude as to be picky about what they ate. All the children had a place under the big old oak tree where they sat on the ground and enjoyed being away from the parents and doing their own thing. Everybody brought their own lawn chair and the adults usually grouped together with their favorite members/friends to eat and enjoy the fellowship. Grams always looked forward to the church picnics because she got to cook less and therefore had less preparation to do for the day. All those who just showed up for Sunday dinner somehow knew when the church dinner was occurring and they would show up there. At the end of the picnic, everybody would take some of the leftover food home with them. Nobody fought over what food they took. It wasn’t necessarily exactly what you brought. It was what you felt your family would enjoy for their evening meal. That way the lady of the house doing all the cooking only needed to cook some meat to go along with the mostly veggies that she brought home. After a while you knew which woman cooked the best food and you’d watch to see where she put her food so you’d know where to go fill your plate. Women were flattered when everybody wanted to take their cooking home with them. It was truly a community meal leftovers and all.

^^^^ @SEKA woe betide the women ( because it was all women) that didn’t make their “usual” specialty but tried something else.

My mother was known for her Tamale casserole, one pot luck she was out of Fritos and olives so she made lasagna instead. You would have thought the whole congregation went hungry.

^ Tell me about it. With the preparation of your specialty came great burden of doing it right every time. if you did it wrong, you weren’t only disappointing your immediate family, you had another 100 or so people judging you. Plus they had been looking forward to tasting your specialty for weeks and you had just ruined their expectations! Funny part was nobody woke up dead the next day from not eating teir favorite food

@SEKA The potlucks were always my favorite as a kid. :) Good memory, thanks for sharing.

Our church did that too, thanks for the nice memory.